Pornographic pictures

Not long ago, a freelance reporter asked me this: "Why should we keep writing people’s stories about clergy sex abuse? It’s just one after another after another, and after awhile, doesn’t it all just seem sort of.....pornographic?"

I looked at him. He was young. He was probably doing his best.

But I hated the question. I hated the word. I didn’t know what to say.

Finally, I mumbled something about how I believed that EVERY individual’s story was important and that, as with so many things, individual stories carry the power to bring about change because they make the problem real. It was a safe and light-weight answer.

What I wish I had said is something more like this.

None of us like having this reel running in our heads. We try every way possible to put some distance between ourselves and those images. But there comes a point when we can’t.

Do you imagine that any of us enjoy being a child-star in such a seedy, ugly movie? A movie with a church setting and Bible verses for a soundtrack? We weren’t given any choice about it.

But however ugly these reels in our heads may be, WE were NOT the pornographic part. We were kids.

THIS is what is truly pornographic: That so many Southern Baptist leaders receive information about ministers who do this to kids, and they turn a blind eye. That many deacons allow their churches to develop a culture of impunity by refusing to do anything about ministers who turn a blind eye to clergy child molestation. That rather than stopping the clergy-perpetrators, Baptist leaders often sermonize the victims on forgiveness. That a paid SBC spokesperson publicly elevated the protection of autonomy over the protection of kids. That the Baptist General Convention of Texas keeps a file of ministers for whom they determined there was "substantial evidence" of sexually abusing a kid, and it doesn’t bother to warn parents where the ministers currently work. That the Baptist General Convention of Texas retains a long-time attorney whose first response to a clergy abuse report is to threaten suit against the molestation victim despite another minister’s substantiation of the report. That Southern Baptist churches across the country still silence clergy sex abuse victims by getting their signatures on secrecy agreements, while leaving reported child molesters in their pulpits. That the SBC president publicly labels a support network for child rape victims as "opportunists."

The men who commit these deeds wear suits and ties. But no amount of clothing can cover up the perverse reality of what they do.

They choose to protect themselves rather than protect kids. They choose to savage the wounded rather than help them. And they do it all with a soundtrack of sickening false righteousness.

With one story after another after another, these so-called religious leaders choose the path of doing nothing when confronted with the evil of clergy child molestation. And yes... the pornographic picture of their chosen path should indeed be shown.